Conversation Media Is All Up In Fashion Business

What is the most popular answer to the question - What does fashion mean to you? Most of the popular fashionistas respond with the classic - “Fashion is about self-expression”.

You know another thing that is all about self-expression - all forms of conversation media. The reason emojis, GIFs, Stickers, and even memes are so popular is because they help people with better self-expressions over online conversations.

And at the rate at which the fashion industry has been innovating their conversation media crossover was inevitable.

Let's see how sticker marketing, emoji marketing, and GIF marketing is hauling a huge chunk of the Fashion Industry.

Let’s unpack innovation in the fashion industry first.

The growth of any sector has a lot to do with innovation. And innovation for many sectors is getting synonyms with digitalization. The fashion industry tells a similar tale.

The COVID-19 epidemic has hastened the digitalization of the fashion sector, especially luxury companies. Fashion e-commerce in the United States has had a ten-year growth spurt in just 3 months in 2020.

The up and coming digital future of humans give luxury brands a lot to evaluate in 2022.

NON FUNGIBLE TOKENS

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are unique digital assets that can represent items, such as pieces of art, movies, and even digital (or real) clothing. They have been around since 2014, but 2021 turned out to be their mainstream moment.

Gucci, Burberry, Louis Vuitton held multimillion-dollar auctions for their NFTs to increase their reach amongst netizens.

Conversation media formats, like emojis, stickers, and GIFs are also a part of the whole NFT rage in various ways.

First of all, GIFs are a popular format in the NFT world, and that stands true for the fashion industry.

Secondly, the fondness for emojis and the fact that they are the evolved version of original digital art made them an inevitable part of NFT.

Like when Scott E Falhman, the inventor of the world’s first emoticon, sold the original smiley emoticon as an NFT in September

Would you like to know what else have emojis been up to? Click here

Virtual Avatars As Identity And Virtual Try On

Brands have been experimenting with Avatar marketing for quite some time. Big fashion brands like Levis and Jordan have been on Snapchat lending branded outfits to your BitMojis for free.

People believe that their virtual avatars like BitMojis are a part of their identity. These avatars either describe who we are or who we aspire to be. So from their hairdo to their choice of sneakers, everything is a reflection of the person behind. But virtual fashion goes well beyond social identities and with digitalization, it has become a major part of our shopping habits.

With the rise of AI and machine learning, brands have been turning up the heat on their virtual store game. For more than a few years Lenskart has had their virtual eyeglass try on the section that has only gotten better with time.

Virtual try-on allow customers to try on products virtually (well just like the name suggests).

According to a recent study by Snapchat and Foresight factory, 35% of US customers would prefer going to a store if they had interactive virtual services where they could try clothes/makeup using a smart mirror. According to another study 62% of consuming consumer's claim that IR has encouraged them to make a purchase.

Virtual try-on surely works towards increased users' satisfaction and ease but they are also prone to a range of risks.

The most important one of these risks is compliance with biometric laws and regulations.

These laws regulate features like facial recognition, templates, and other biometrics. Time will tell how brands plan to navigate these challenging waves in future.

Fashion Ecommerce as a part of Conversation Media and Conversations

Stickers and emojis were a part of self-expression ages before it even evolved to conversation media. Before digital stickers came into the picture teenagers were using normal stickers on their backpacks, lockers, and diaries to show support to a band, favourite comic book hero, or more.

Fashion merch on Snapchat is the type of digital sticker marketing that we will definitely be seeing more of in future. Brands understand that conversation media marketing can help them become a part of user conversations.

Shopping also has a social component to it. People like to shop with their friends, partners, etc. And as ecommerce saw unprecedented rise during the pandemic, technologies have started to emerge that give you that social shopping feeling from the comfort of your home.

Elysa Kahn, former brand manager at loreal, started Squadded, a virtual platform that allows people to shop with their friends online just like they used to do in malls. Squadded is just one of many platforms that have started to provide this service.